A new World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report reinforces the need to increase investment in nurturing care for young children, particularly those in disadvantaged and developing nations,Emily Campbell writes.
Members will be aware that the early experiences in a child’s life shape their health, growth, learning, behaviour and relationships later in life, with 80 per cent of neural development occurring between pregnancy to three years of age.
The report tracks progress against the global Nurturing Care Framework, launched in 2018 by WHO, UNICEF and the World Bank Group, along with the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health (PMNCH) and the Early Childhood Development Action Network.
Nurturing Care Framework
The report reflects on the last five years since the Framework was established, documenting achievement and presenting areas for future action.
The framework was designed to help practitioners and policymakers support nurturing care and education and improve early childhood development at scale and is complemented by a handbook, practice guide, thematic briefs, country profile and a website which members will find of interest.
It promotes an integrated approach to early childhood development covering health, safety, security, early learning and responsive caregiving as essential areas for interventions.
Head of Child Health and Development at WHO, Dr Bernadette Daelmans, said nurturing care and education lays the foundations for healthy brain development, which has lifelong benefits for learning, health and wellbeing.
“To improve children’s health, we must not only focus on meeting their immediate physical needs but also ensure they can learn effectively and develop positive, emotionally rewarding relations with people around them,” she said.
The framework provides guidance for supporting the healthy physical, intellectual and emotional development of young children and outlines five strategic actions:
- lead and invest
- focus on families and their communities
- strengthen services
- monitor progress, and
- scale up and innovate.
Positive progress but greater investment needed
Director of Maternal, Newborn, Child and Adolescent Health and Ageing at WHO, Dr Anshu Banerjee, said while the latest report shows encouraging progress, greater investment is needed in these foundational early years so children everywhere have the best possible start for a healthy life.
“Early childhood development provides a critical window to improve health and well-being across life – with impacts that resonate even into the next generation,” he said.
The report says in the past five years, political commitment to early childhood development has increased, with almost 50 per cent more countries having developed related policies or plans and expanding services.
More than 80 per cent of responding countries have reported training frontline workers to support families in providing responsive caregiving and early learning activities.
However, increased investments are needed to scale up services and demonstrate impact, particularly in vulnerable populations.
Providing support for children with developmental delays and addressing caregiver psychosocial wellbeing are part of this agenda.
Cohesive effort is required to enable environments for early childhood development across various sectors.
The report notes family-friendly policies supporting equitable access to affordable, high-quality early childhood education and care is crucial, something our union has long campaigned for.
WHO has rolled out two new measures for improving data on progress – the Early Childhood Development Index 2030 and the Global Scales for Early Development – which can now be used to assess early childhood development starting soon after birth.
Members can access the full report and learn more about the Nurturing Care Framework online at www.nurturing-care.org